


Here For You

by readerinserttrashtbh



Category: NCIS
Genre: Abusive Relationship, Angst, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Maybe - Freeform, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Past Abuse, Protective, Protective Jethro Gibbs, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:40:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21612412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readerinserttrashtbh/pseuds/readerinserttrashtbh
Summary: The reader has been sleeping in the office for a couple of nights, and Jethro wants to know why. When the answer is more to unpack than he thought, the team has to navigate reader's personal past while trying to protect her from it. Multi-chapter, and I tried my best to write the characters true to the show.
Relationships: Jethro Gibbs/Reader
Comments: 29
Kudos: 179





	1. Welcomed

You poke your head out of the office bathroom, checking to see if any of your team members are still in the office. Satisfied they had all gone home for the night, you locked yourself in the shower stall, turning on the hot water and watching it steam up the small rectangular stall. You swore when you realized you had only packed shampoo in your hurry.

You rummaged through your bag for the shorts you’ve been sleeping in, having forgotten to grab a pajama shirt as well in your haste. If your friend had been in town… you shook off the thought. It wasn’t her fault. You put out the shorts and hung up the sweater you had worn at work today, getting ready to strip off and enter the shower.

“Are you okay, (Y/L/N)?” You heard Gibb’s voice coming from outside the shower stall. You were in the women’s bathroom, right? You slipped the pajama shorts and the sweater on and opened the stall door to see him leaned back against the sink, arms crossed and still in the outfit he was wearing at work today. He took you in. “Have you been sleeping here?” 

“I, uh,” you thought about lying to him, but knew he’d see right through it. Especially with you standing before him in your PJ shorts. “Yeah. For the last 2 nights, and tonight.”

“Why?” His face was confused, but you saw the undercurrent of concern there. It almost made you want to tell him. You opened your mouth to say something and then closed it again. “Somethin’ wrong with yers?”

“No, not… not really,” you crossed your arms over your chest, looking past him at the door behind his head. You couldn’t meet his eyes, and you knew he could read you like a book.

“Somethin’s gotta be wrong, (Y/N), or ya wouldn’t be sleepin’ here. What’s going on?”

You tried to tell him. But how to start? How do you let him in on this? How do you tell him when you know he’ll think less of you? A number of times, you opened your mouth, started to say something, but couldn’t get anything out.

“Look, whatever it is, you don’t gotta tell me,” he held his hand out to you and you stared at it. “But stayin’ at my place has gotta be better than showering in and sleepin’ on the floor of NCIS. Yer always welcome, if you’d rather.”

“Gibbs, I couldn’t-“

“It really isn’t a problem. Yer on my team, you’ve always got a place there.”

You took his hand that he still held out to you. “Okay, yeah. I’ll take you up on that then.” You dropped his hand and picked your bag up off the floor, pulling your keys from it.

“Don’t worry about drivin’ there, either. We’re both comin’ back here in the mornin’, no use in taking two cars.” You nodded and smiled in thanks and looked back up at him when he hadn’t left the bathroom yet. “You want to uh, stop by your place just to grab extra clot-“

“No!” You interjected quickly, and there was that quizzical, concerned look again. “I…” You trailed off again. You couldn’t get yourself to say it.

“Okay,” he turned back around and headed to the door. You two spent a short, uncomfortably silent ride in his car, and arrived at his house in equal silence. When you walked in the door, he pointed to the kitchen. “There’s beer in the fridge, and if you still wanna take that shower, its down this hall, to the right.”

When you didn’t move right away, he looked at you, expecting a question from you. “Uh, can I uh, use your soap? I only brought shampoo. I um… packed in a hurry.”

He nodded and stopped you before you headed down the hallway. “This all you got for a shirt to sleep in?” You nodded and opened your mouth to say again that you packed in a hurry, but he cut you off. “I’ll grab you one of my sweatshirts, just gimme a second.” He jogged down the hallway to what you assumed was his bedroom, walking out with a red Stillwater sweatshirt. You took it from him and pulled your towel from your bag, closing the door to the bathroom behind you.

The shower was roomier than the one at the office was and was more comforting, and you felt the hot water start to relax the muscles that have been bunched up for days. Sleeping on the floor probably wasn’t helping with that.

When you got out you slipped the PJ shorts back on and pulled his sweatshirt on over it, the worn fabric almost reaching your knees. You walked back out to the living room, where Gibbs was sitting on the couch with two TV dinners in front of him.

“Y’hungry?” He pointed to the one to the right of him. “Sorry I didn’t have anythin’ else but beer and these old things.”

You weren’t hungry, but you sat down next to him and ate some anyway. “Thank you, Gibbs. I don’t know what to say.”

Gibbs shrugged, looking like he was thinking, and then turned to you. “Just because you haven’t been on the team as long as Tony or McGee or Ziva, don’t mean you’re any less part of the family as the rest. Whatever’s… goin’ on, we’re all here for ya. Tony… Tony’s actually asked about ya too. He noticed you had been sleeping there but didn’t wanna pry.”

“Tony, not wanting to pry?” Your surprise let you gloss over the genuineness of his statement.

“I think he could tell it was something more serious.”

A heavy, expectant silence sat between you while the Bonanza theme song played in the background from his tiny box TV in the corner. You looked down at the TV dinner in your lap and started eating again, to give an excuse for the silence. Gibbs got up and went into the kitchen, opening the fridge and grabbing himself a beer. He looked up at you, pointing at you with the bottom of the bottle, his eyebrow raised in question.

“Sure,” you shrugged, and he passed it to you as he walked back by and sat next to you on the couch. You sat there in silence for a few minutes as he sipped his beer and watched the show, contrary to you, who chugged yours and got up for another one.

The episode finished, another one started, and you set your second empty bottle down on the coffee table. He gave it a glace, but didn’t say anything.

“Gibbs.” He looked at you and you took a deep breath, the very slight alcohol in your blood giving you the extra daring you needed to finally spit it out. “My ex-husband,” you started, earning a shocked look from him. You had never mentioned being married. “My, abusive, ex-husband. He sent me to the hospital 4 times, twice with a concussion, once with a broken arm, and finally with a fractured rib. That was the last straw, and I finally stood up for myself. He was arrested, and sentenced to 10 years in jail for domestic abuse.” You took another deep breath. “He got out on good behavior after 6, and I got a restraining order on him. I didn’t think about it again, until… until he moved in next to me. The restraining order had expired, and I didn’t realize it, and… He… he moved into the apartment next to me, Gibbs.” 

“Did you see if-“

“Yeah, I tried to renew the restraining order, but they said because I hadn’t renewed it right as it expired, and because he had been let out on good behavior and had been in anger management, that they didn’t think he was a threat to me anymore. But Gibbs he moved in next to me.”  
You could tell he was about to say something, so you hurried to get the next part out. “I could have… I would have been able to deal with that. But I came home three days ago, and there was stuff out of place in my apartment. I knew it was him I just knew it, so I packed a bag quickly and went to stay at my friends for a few days. But I remembered she had mentioned seeing his blue fucking pickup passing by there a couple of times a couple of days ago, and I didn’t want him to see my car there and get her caught in the middle of it. I was going to go back to my apartment, trying to convince myself I was just imagining things but… when I got back, the door was open, just slightly. He was in there, Gibbs, waiting for me. I could hear his breath right behind the door. I turned around and ran and went to the office and haven’t been back.”

The tears started flowing from you now and you couldn’t hold them back. You could feel the embarrassment burning in the back of your throat and the tips of your ears.  
“And I know it’s stupid, after all those years of training, but in those moments I wasn’t the Special Agent I’ve been for the last few years but I was back to being that broken girl, just out of high school who thought that I was trapped because we were married. And I couldn’t… I couldn’t snap myself out of that mindset. And I can’t go back there. Not… not while he’s there.”

Gibbs sat up and put his arm around you, his thumb caressing your shoulder lightly. He let you cry for a second, and then held your shoulder tighter, turning you to look at him.

“(Y/N),” he started. “I don’t know why you didn’t think you could tell us about this. It’s not stupid to feel powerless around him, he’s pulled all of these moved to mess with you. But you can count on us, all of us. This team is more than willing to help you.” You nodded, knowing you should have told them from the start, but the embarrassment of how you reacted was what held you back. “Even if it’s sending Ziva in to get your stuff, or sending McGee to stake out the place and watch for him to leave so you can go in and get your stuff, we’re here for you. And we can help fight for a new restraining order, we can gather evidence. You’re not alone, (Y/N).”

“I know I should’ve told you guys but…”

He shook his head. “You don’t have to explain it. Just know that we’re all willing to help you.” You nodded again, and he handed you the rest of his beer. “Here, you need this more than me. And in the morning, unless we have a case, we’ll talk to the rest of the team and see what we can do.”

“Thank you,” you said, not sure what else to say. He clapped you on the back and stood up to get another beer from the fridge.

He stopped on his way back into the living room, squinting out of his window. “(Y/N), you mentioned a blue pickup. What kind of pickup?”

Your heart jumped in your throat. “Light blue, late nineties. Why?”

Gibbs rushed over to the window, drawing the curtains shut as you heard an engine rev outside. He walked over to the front door, looking out of the window to the left of it before closing those curtains too, and throwing the deadbolt that is notorious for never being used. You heard the sound of the truck fade away down the road, soon overpowered by the sound of your heart beating hard and loud in your ears.

“How the hell did he find me here?” your voice had risen an octave, and you could hear the panic lacing it. You swallowed hard trying to calm yourself down. “I didn’t even drive here. My car’s at the office, how the hell, Gibbs how did he-“

“I don’t know, (Y/N), but he’s gone now.” He sat back down next to you, hugging you tightly as you buried your face in his shoulder. “He’s probably stalked all of us, all the people he knows you spend a lot of time with. When he’s seen your car stay at NCIS he’s probably been checking all those places. He got lucky here and saw you through the window.” 

You couldn’t shake the panic welling up inside of you, and you gripped Gibb’s arms tightly as fear rendered you unable to move. His right hand was rubbing your back, the left threading through the hair on the top of your head, trying to calm you down. 

After a few minutes your breathing returned to normal, tamping down the panic attack that had been threatening to burst forth. 

“Okay,” Gibbs spoke softly, tucking the last of your hair out of your face and behind your ear. One of his thumbs wiped some of the tears from your cheek and he held you out at arms length so he can talk to your face. “I’m going to call the rest of the team, and tell them to be on look out for that truck.” 

Gibbs got up to call the others and you wrung your hands, biting your lip as you thought about how he followed you here. You had hoped to keep the others out of this and of course you went and roped the whole team into it. When Gibbs got back he sat back down next to you, gently pulling your lower lip out from under your top teeth. “You’re gonna start bleeding if you keep that up,” he started stroking your hair again, and you slowly stopped wringing your hands together. Gibbs rested his chin on the top of your head, his face pointed towards the window. “Ziva said she’s seen that truck around a few times. Tim hasn’t noticed it from his apartment, but his window faces the alleyway, and Tony doesn’t remember seeing it, but he also hasn’t been looking.” You nodded, feeling his chin move against your head. “I think it’s time for bed. You take the bedroom, it’s further away from the door.” 

Earlier you would have argued but that sounded way too good to disagree now. You nodded and he walked with you into the bedroom, grabbing an extra blanket off the foot of the bed as he walked back towards the door.

“Wait,” you whispered, and he turned around. You couldn’t believe you were about to say this, but, “I don’t … I don’t think I’d be able to sleep if I’m alone. Would you… stay in here? The bed is big enough.”

Gibbs looked at you for a long time before he shrugged. “Yeah, sure.” 

Despite your situation, your heart fluttered a little as you slipped between the sheets on the left side of the bed. It’s been a while since you thought about him like that, but when you had first joined Gibb’s team two years ago, you had harbored a massive crush on your boss. You kept snug to the edge of the bed to avoid borderline cuddling with your boss, hoping your unconscious mind and body didn’t betray you in the middle of the night. 

Feeling the weight of his body beside you, you drifted off to sleep.


	2. Comforted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team gets the whole story

You’re not sure what woke you up, but your eyes snapped open with a start and you squinted in the darkness to find your clock. You saw faint, unfamiliar red figures outlining the time, 3:24 AM, and remembered you weren’t in your own room. That’s when you felt your back pressed against a warm, solid wall behind you and realized - oh god - you were spooning with your boss. You squirmed to get out of this compromising position, hoping he would wake up to find you both on opposite sides of the bed like you’d started, but you couldn’t get far. 

Gibb’s left arm was thrown over your middle and his hand tucked under your body, effectively forming a cage you couldn’t get out of without waking him. His right arm was above both of you, his hand still in your hair, stilled now in sleep, but bringing back memories of how he had stroked your hair to calm you down earlier in the night, and how well it had worked.

You stopped struggling and relaxed, matching your breathing to his as the comfort of his presence lulled you back to sleep. 

########################################################################################################

The next time you woke up was the screaming alarm, jolting both you and Gibb’s upright on the bed as you slapped around the general area of the alarm on the bedside table, flashing a bright red 6:00 AM at you as you tried to shut it off. After fumbling around for a few seconds you managed to silence the device, flopping back down on the bed and rubbing the sleep from your eyes. Gibbs was already up, grabbing a new set of clothes from his closet to change out of the sweats and T-shirt he had worn to bed last night. 

You must have drifted back off because Gibbs was shaking you awake, throwing your bag onto the bed next to you as he pointed his thumb towards the front door. “Almost seven, wanted to let ya sleep as long as I could, but we gotta get goin’.” 

You nodded and pulled a final clean outfit out of your bag, having packed 4 ready-to-wear work outfits when you had packed to leave your apartment. You closed the door behind Gibbs and changed quickly before slipping into the bathroom to brush your teeth. 

You met Gibbs by the door a few minutes later and you waited as he looked through the curtains of the windows before throwing the deadbolt back and walking out to the car with you. 

The silence in the car this morning was much more comfortable, interrupted by a stop to his coffee shop, getting a tray of coffees for the team. Back in the car, you bent down to pick up an empty coffee cup on the floor of his passenger seat, a pink lipstick mark around the edge of it. You raised your eyebrow at him. 

“Start wearing hot pink lipstick now, Gibbs?” He looked in your direction and smirked when he saw the cup you held up. 

“Would you believe that that’s from Vivian?” Gibbs chuckled as he pulled into the NCIS parking lot. 

“Why should I care who it’s from?” You asked as you raised your eyebrows in his direction. He shrugged and put the car in park. You got out of the car, still holding the cup. “Wait Vivian? Vivian James? The victim’s wife from… 3 months ago?” Gibbs just shrugged as you entered the building, and you threw the empty coffee cup in the trash on the way in. 

The other three members of the team jumped up as you entered the bullpen, Ziva being the first to reach you. Her embrace was solid, and the tightness of her arms around you brought relief. She pulled away and cupped your face with her hand, running her thumb over your bottom lip, bruised from having bitten it so much last night. 

“Are you alright? You have a stalker?” She smoothed some of your hair back and released you, allowing Tim to come up and hug you followed by Tony, a look of concern on his face that was more genuine than you’ve ever seen him. Gibbs handed out the coffee to the boys before returning to stand behind you.

“I’m okay. A little shaken up, but I’ll be alright.” you were about to ask what they knew of the situation when you heard someone shriek your name from behind you. You turned to see Abby dashing towards you, leaping up into your arms to hug you. You steeled yourself just in time, catching her and turning around to set her down beside Tim. “Hey Abby,” you smiled at her and patted the top of her head, which she closed her eyes and smiled at. 

“So I’ve done some preliminary background research on the owner of that truck,” Tim said, who hit a button on his remote and brought up Nick’s mugshot on the big screen. “Nick Lehois, 30. Spent 6 years in prison for domestic assault against his wife, who was-” Tim faltered off. “Against- uh-” he looked at you again, the surprise evident in his eyes. 

“It’s alright, Tim. It’s time you all find out.” You subconsciously stepped closer to Gibbs for comfort, who put his hand on your back, his thumb just brushing the tips of your hair. 

Tim nodded, and continued reading the screen. “6 years for domestic violence against-” He faltered again, then clicked the button on the remote again, bringing up a picture of you, battered and bruised by Nick's hand. “(Y/N) Lehois.” At this, all eyes turned to you. Tim kept reading. “Out on good behavior, Nick spent the next three years living in Virginia, just on the edge of the restraining order (Y/N) took out on him after their divorce was finalized. It looks like he moved just last week, to… oh.” 

“What, McGee?” Tony went to jostle Tim to get him to keep speaking, but he read the screen first. “139 Maple…. (Y/N), isn’t that your apartment complex?” You nodded. “Oh, god. That’s why you’ve been sleeping here…” 

“You’ve been sleeping here?” Ziva turned to you suddenly and stared at you. “Why didn’t you tell me? You would have been more than welcome to stay at my place.” 

Gibbs gave you a pointed look, an I-told-you-so look, and you just shrugged. “I didn’t want to get everyone involved, I thought it was something I could handle on my own. I was wrong, and I see that now.” You sighed heavily. “I never told y’all I had been married or that he was abusive because I didn’t want you treating me differently. Being treated like a victim is.. Fine, when I was actually a victim, but I didn’t want to be treated that way for the rest of my life, and…”

The team was looking at you and you crossed your arms over your chest. “Look I … I know this is about me, but can we make this a little less about me? I just want to be done with this.”

Gibbs smirked and used his hand on your back to guide you towards the break room. “Look, let’s get you breakfast since you didn’t eat this morning. Abbs, will you stay with her? I’m gonna talk to the others and see if we can’t figure something out.” 

“Of course, Gibbs!” She stuck her cheek out for him and he smiled, giving her a kiss on the cheek as she requested. Then he turned to you, hesitating for a second and then placing a kiss on your forehead. 

“We’ll figure this out, (Y/N), and get you back into your place as soon as possible. Until then, you’re always welcome to stay with me. Long as you stop having fits like you did last night.” 

You scrunched your eyebrows together. “Fits?” 

Gibbs glanced sideways at Abby, meaningfully, and she stuck her fingers in her ears, squeezing her eyes shut. “Had all I could do to hold you still last night. Don’t know what you were dreamin’ about, but had to be some hell of a dream. You kept kicking and thrashing, almost socked me in the jaw.” 

You grinned at him sheepishly. “Sorry, boss.” You felt a little weird calling him boss, after having spent the night in his bed, but hearing him say the position you woke in was due to your night terrors, rather than… you didn’t know what you thought, but rather than anything else, made that feeling fade a little. It also came with a sinking feeling of… disappointment? He started walking away, but you grabbed his arm before he made it out the door. What you didn’t notice was Abby, who had peeked one eye open and was watching you. “Hey, Gibbs. I’m really… thank you. For everything, really, last night, but mostly for… staying with me.” 

Gibbs gave you a once over and lifted one side of his mouth. “Anytime.” He left the room, and you saw Abby smiling at you deviously. She took her fingers from her ears as you bought a granola bar from the vending machine. 

“Did you sleep with him last night?” She came and sat down at the table next to you, and you sat across from her, unwrapping the bar and biting into the end. 

“Yes,” you answered, to a shocked look from her. “No! Not like that, not like that,” she smirked and you rolled your eyes. Abby was the only person, ever, who knew about the feelings you had when you first joined. She was also the only person, other than Director Vance, who knew about your past. You hadn't willingly told her, but after all the change she'd been through, she had unsealed your records when you first joined the team. You've been forever thankful to her for not raising the flag to the rest of the team, and kept it between the two of you. You two became fast friends since, and she's the only person who's known about the marriage who doesn't treat you as a fragile victim. “Last night I was… I was really upset, and so he slept in the bed with me.”

“And spooned you, apparently,” Abby said, again with that devious smile. You looked at her, confused as to how she knew that. “Sorry, I may have peeked a little bit. I can read lips, remember?” 

“Ah… yes, I do,” you smiled and finished your granola bar, throwing the wrapper in the recycling. “Apparently, he was keeping me from spazzing out with bad dreams. He’s also discovered that playing with my hair is what calms me down the best.” 

Abby smirked at you again and you smiled back at her, her teasing putting you in an even better mood. You almost forgot about your problems until Tony walked in the room with a grim look on his face. You stood up, apprehension building in your chest.

“What happened? What’s that look about?” 

Tony opened his mouth to speak when Gibbs pushed past him. The pissed off look on his face didn’t do anything to calm your nerves and as he came to stand in front of you, you shrunk from his gaze despite knowing it wasn’t you he was pissed at. He softened a bit at this, but you could tell he was still wound tightly. 

“Do you want to stay at a safehouse, or do you want to keep staying with me? If you stay with me, we’re having another agent stay posted, and another agent staking out his… your apartment complex.”

“What? No, I don’t want to stay in a safehouse. Despite this I'm still an agent, and hell no. I will not let that.... lowlife take that much control. What the hell even happened to make you suggest that?” Gibbs began to walk away and you shouted after him. “Gibbs!” 

He didn’t stop, and you looked at Tony. You heard Gibbs yell at McGee in the distance, something about tracking down the bastard. Abby got up and stood beside you, wrapping her arms around your middle and resting her head on your shoulder. 

“Tony, what happened?” She asked, and Tony's frown deepened. 

"Follow me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry to end like that... I had to create some suspense


	3. Apologies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what to tell you guys about this one, man. The team navigates the new information they have, and Gibbs gets angry.

Tony led you out into the main bullpen and to the main windows that faced the parking lot. Sitting in your parking spot was your car, absolutely destroyed. All of the windows had been smashed in, the headlights smashed out, the brake lights broken, and the words ‘bitch’ and ‘whore’ scratched on the side that faced the building. You ran out to the parking lot, seeing that the inside of the car had been burned. Vance, Ziva, and another agent who you recognized but didn’t know the name of were standing around the husk of what had been a fairly new vehicle.

As you approached the vehicle the agents turned to you, Ziva with a look of concern, Vance looking stern and upset. The agent you didn’t know walked towards you and put his hands in his pockets. 

“I uh, I park in the spot in front of yours, that blocks your car from the windows. I work night shift and was just about to leave when I… saw this.” 

You put your head in your hands and willed the tears back, lifting your head back up and looking at director Vance. He inclined his head back into the building and you followed him, up the stairs and into his office. 

“Director, I’m so, so sorry. It shouldn’t have been brought to the office and I’m-”

“That’s enough.” Vance cut you off and you physically stepped back, ready for the lecture coming your way. “You don’t have to apologize, and you don’t have to explain anything. You told me about your past when you officially became an agent, and while I wish it hadn’t happened here, I wish it hadn’t happened at all. And none of this is your fault, do you hear me?” You nodded but looked down at the floor, and Vance walked up to you and tilted his head down to try to look you in the eyes. You lifted your head back up to look at him. “This. is. Not. your. Fault. Your ex-husband is deranged and should, and will, go back to prison for this. I’ve sent a recent case that came in to the night shift team. Listen, I want you guys to all focus on this for now, okay? Get this taken care of.” He put his hand on your shoulder, and he gave you a meaningful look. “Get this bastard.” 

You smiled and nodded, turning to leave when he called your name again, and you turned to look at him. “Agent Gibbs is… really miffed someone messed not only with his team, but with you specifically. Finding out about your past I think has created a further connection for him, if you understand me. You know about Shannon?” You nodded. He’d mentioned his daughter once before, and on a night spent drunk on whiskey in his basement, a few months after you had joined his team, he told you the story. That was the night you had really fallen for him. But you pushed that out of your mind as Vance kept talking. “Other than his strong, strong hatred for domestic violence I think… the fact that it was a member of his team, and finding out about a failed marriage that had been hidden from him,” you looked sheepish at that, and Vance backtracked. “No, I think he actually almost respects you for that. I mean, being Gibbs I’m sure he would have rather you told him about it. But he also understands, to a point. But, I think he also feels like he should have known, like he should have been able to figure out that you were hiding something. And the fact that he didn’t know and having this happen to you, makes him extra frustrated.” Vance licked his bottom lip as he was thinking. “What I’m trying to say is that Gibbs is extra pissed off about this one, and if you and the rest of the team aren’t careful, Gibbs might go too far here.” 

“If you’re suggesting he would kill Nick-”

“Not kill him, probably, but Gibbs has been known to knock around suspects he didn’t like. And since Nick has particularly pissed him off…” 

“No offense, director, but I wouldn’t really care what he’d do to him. I want this man out of my life.” 

“I’m sure you don’t, Agent, but we still have to stay inside the law with this one. This will especially count in either keeping him in prison, or keeping a permanent restraining order against him.” 

You nodded. “I understand, director. And… thanks. For giving us the freedom to focus on this.” Vance nodded in response and escorted you back out of his office. By the time you headed back down the stairs you could see the truck that would be towing your ruined car into the evidence garage. You headed into the bullpen to see Tony staring at the big screen, going back and forth on a video that you couldn’t quite see yet.

As you walked up to him, he jumped when you spoke next to him. “Whatcha doing?” You asked.

“Jesus. You’re spending too much time with the boss. Didn’t hear you sneak up on me.” 

“I wasn’t sneaking. You’re probably just going deaf.” 

Tony furrowed his brows and frowned at you. “I’m not deaf, you’re deaf-ouch!” Tony yelled in pain as Gibbs walked by the two of you, head-smacking him on the way by. “Sorry boss.”

“What are you looking at?” Gibbs echoed your previous question as he came to stand beside you, placing a large hand on the small of your back, a comforting gesture that let you release some of the breath you didn’t realize you were holding. 

Tony glanced at the gesture but didn’t say anything. “Security video from last night. I know we know it’s him, we all do, but he doesn’t show his face, or his truck on the video at all. All we get is this right… here,” Tony stopped the video on a frame where Nick was facing the camera, but his hand was covering his face, his middle finger raised in the direction of the camera. The only thing you can see if the left side of his face with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Not enough to get a positive ID, and not enough to convince a judge or jury.

“Great,” you sighed, turning away and willing more tears back so you didn’t embarrass yourself in front of them. 

“Don’t lose hope, (Y/N)!” Abby said from across the bullpen. You looked over to her, Ziva standing next to her, as she held up an evidence bag. You couldn’t see what was in it from so far away, but the excited look on her face made you feel a little better. She skipped towards you and held the bag out in front of you. “He used his cigarette to start the fire, and left this there. His DNA should be on it, and we can prove it was him through that!” 

Gibbs’ phone rang at that, and he flipped it open. 

“McGee,” you tried to listen to the other side of the conversation, but you couldn’t quite make it out. “You’re sure he’s not there?” Gibbs gestured you towards him, grabbing his gun from his desk and his keys as he headed towards the door. You followed him as Abby, Tony and Ziva looked after you. 

“What do you want us to do, boss?” Tony called after you.

“Find him, DiNozzo,” He shouted back and then stopped, turning back around. “Abby, you make sure to get that DNA and Ziva, give Ducky everything we know about Lehois and have him make a psychological profile of him. We need everything we can use in court to nail him for as long as a sentence as we can.” The three nodded and rushed into action as the two of you walked out of the building. 

You got into his car and looked at him expectantly as he began to drive away. 

“I’ve had McGee trying to track him, and the last time his cell phone pinged was at your apartment complex, but that was last night. McGee and Dorneget have been watching it, to see if he came back, and McGee did a sweep of his apartment and yours to see if he was hiding out inside. No one is there, so we’re going to get you what you need from your place. I hope to have the bastard in jail by tomorrow, but you should grab a weeks worth of whatever you need, just in case you have to stay at my place longer.” You swallowed hard and looked down in your lap, fiddling with the zipper on your jacket. He looked at you for a second before returning his eyes to the road. “I want this done quickly because I want you to stop having to worry about him. Not because I want to stop having your company.” 

You laughed and held your hand up. “I didn’t think that, Gibbs, it’s alright. I’m just… nervous going back there. I think… even after all of this is over, I’ll want to find a new place.” He nodded in understanding and kept driving, though you noticed the skin on his knuckles turning white as he gripped the steering wheel tightly. “Gibbs… I’m sorry I never told you.” 

He sent a surprised look your way. "I'm not really in any place to hold that against you, (Y/N)," he started, and it sounded like he had more to add, but he stopped, biting his tongue. "I should've-" 

"Been able to figure it out?" You finished for him with a rueful smile. "Don't hold that against yourself, either. I work hard to keep that part of my life hidden away." 

"Still, I shoulda…" he trailed off as you pulled into the parking lot of your complex. "Guess you're just too distracting." Gibbs put the car in park and stepped out quickly before you could process what he said 

"What?" You called after him, but he was already talking to McGee as you walked up to them, and you decided to drop it.

"I've extensively checked both apartments," McGee said as the three of you walked up to your door, Gibbs drawing his gun on instinct. "and Dorneget has been watching both places from across the street, to make sure he hasn't returned, or come by to check it out. He hasn't been here since last night, boss." 

Gibbs nodded but kept his gun drawn anyway, and you drew yours too, feeling safer with the familiar metal in your hands. You made it to your room and Gibbs stood right at the door, watching you as you pulled the rest of your work clothes from the closet and packed them into the bag you had brought with you. 

"I'll have to do laundry at your place," you said as you rummaged in your drawers to find acceptable pairs of panties and a few extra bras. You also grabbed your pajama tank and packed it into the bag. Then you grabbed everything from your shower, excited to have your full arsenal back when you showered at the end of the day. You grabbed your makeup bag as well and dumped all of these into the bag, earning a raised eyebrow from Gibbs. You were about to protest when you heard the front door swing open. 

In an instant you had grabbed your gun from the bed where you had left it and pointed it at the door, Gibbs following suit as you waited for the person to pass through it. 

You put your gun down as relief swept through you, looking into the face of your best friend from college as she held her hands up in innocence. 

"Jeez I just come to check up on my best friend and this is the welcome I get?" She smiled and rushed over to hug you, Gibbs also putting his gun down and smiling. 

"Rachel," you sighed happily as you set the gun back down and hugged her tightly. "You would not believe the week I've had." 

"You'll have to tell me all about it when you get the chance," she said, eyeing the gun on your bed and the Agent behind you. "but it looks as if you're still in the middle of this bad week, so I'll let you get back to it. I just wanted to check to make sure you were okay." She turned around and stuck her hand out to Gibbs, who shook if awkwardly. "and you must be the Special Agent Gibbs I've heard so much about," she started as you elbowed her, which just caused Gibbs to smile. "I'm Rachel. We studied criminal justice together but I went on to do other, lesser things." 

"Don't let her fool you," you rolled your eyes as you zipped up your bag and threw it over your shoulder. "she changed her major senior year after taking a theater class, and ended up doing two more years as a theater major. And now she's a scriptwriter for crime shows," you laughed as the three of you walked out of the apartment and back to McGee, who fidgeted like he had something to say. You said goodbye to Rachel and promised to get lunch with her when everything was done before turning your attention to the agent. 

"Boss," McGee started, looking at the empty area where Dorneget had been parked across the street. "a light blue pickup matching the description of Lehois' passed by a couple of minutes ago. Dorneget is following him now and will call with updates." 

Gibbs expression darkened and held an arm out to you, pulling you behind him a little bit. While you appreciated the gesture, the initial shock of Nick's arrival was fading and being replaced with cold anger and a determination to not let him get the better of you. You stepped back out from behind Gibbs, putting your hair up with one of the scrunchies you had grabbed from your place, and when McGee's phone rang, you held out your hand for it. He looked to your mutual boss and when Gibbs just shrugged, he handed the phone to you. 

"Dorneget, it's (Y/N). What's the update?" 

"Oh, uh, hi, Agent (Y/L/N)," Dorneget stammered. "The uh, the truck was definitely Lehois' truck. The plates match, and I've followed it to a couple blocks away, but…"

"What, Dorneget?" You barked into the phone, and could almost hear him coil back. 

"Well, he's kind of driving in circles now. He's gone around the same block twice, and now I think he's headed back towards the apartment. I'm still tailing him, and I don't think he knows I'm here." 

"Okay, thanks Dorney," you hung up the phone and tossed it back to McGee, relaying the information to the two agents. "I say we stop him if he comes around again. If he doesn't know we're here yet, we could get the drop on him. Look, there he is now," you drew your gun again as the blue pickup rounded the corner and started heading your way. 

Gibbs quickly hopped in his car, speeding out into the road and stopping the truck right as it would have passed by the apartment. You and McGee trained your weapons on the truck, your heart beating fast and loud in your ears. You saw Gibbs get out of the car and order Nick to get out with his hands up.

The truck switched to reverse and started backing away from the three of you, but Dorneget had blocked it in from behind with his car. He also got out and trained his weapon on the driver's side of the truck. 

"This ends now, Nick, you have nowhere to go," you yelled, watching the driver's side door open. Your trigger finger twitched with anxiety but you calmed it as you watched the unfamiliar figure climb down from the lifted truck. You got closer as Gibbs grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the truck, putting down his gun and looking annoyed at the kid. "Who the hell are you?" You shouted, and the kid startled as he watched you approach with your gun still trained on his head. "Where the fuck is Nick? What is this?" 

The kid put one of his hands up, the other being held tightly by Gibbs as he looked between the four agents, panicked. 

"Woah woah look," he started, looking back at you. "I don't know any Nick, I don't know what you're talking about, okay, this isn't even my truck," he pulled the keys out of his pocket and tossed them on the ground. You and McGee holstered your weapons but Dorneget and Gibbs kept theirs out, but down. 

"We know it's not your truck," Gibbs said with a head smack to the kid, who couldn't have been more than 16. "So what the hell are you doin' drivin' it?" 

"I- I- I didn't steal it, I swear," the kid burst out, reaching back into his jacket pocket. 

"Woah," Dorneget warned, his gun raised back up and pointed at the kid. 

Slowly he pulled his wallet from his pocket and opened it, pulling out three crisp bills. "look, some guy paid me 300$ to take this truck and drive around this block all day with it. Then he told me I could have it I mean, what kinda idiot would I be to not take him up on that?" 

Gibbs roughly let go of the kids arm, shoving him back as he rubbed his face in exasperation. "what kinda… what kinda idiot do you have to be to not think something's hinky about that? Some guy PAYS you to take his truck and you don't think that maybe something's wrong with it? God!" He drops his hands and shakes his head, walking back to his car to move it out of the road, flipping his phone open as he did. 

You walked up to the kid. "Alright, you gotta.come with us to NCIS to give us your statement, alright? I promise you're not in trouble." The kid looked nervously at Gibbs' car and back to you. "Can I ride with you?" 

You smiled. "Riding with me means riding with him, so if that's what you really want, sure," you pointed your thumb towards Gibbs, which caused the kids eyes to widen as he backed up. "or, you can ride with agent McGee here," you jerked your chin towards Tim, who inclined his head towards his car as the kid happily followed. You picked the keys to the truck off the ground, stepping up into the driver's seat, inclined to get the truck out of the middle of the road. You thought at the last minute to cover your hands with your sleeves so you didn't contaminate possible evidence as you started the truck and drove it into the parking lot, parking where you would have parked your own car. 

You jumped back down from the high step and opened your phone to call the tow team to take the truck back to the evidence locker. Gibbs motioned you back to his car and you stepped into the passenger seat, closing the door just as he sped off. 

He brought the two of you back to NCIS in silence, and you could almost hear the anger boiling under his skin. The ride back was short, thankfully, and as you stepped out of the car you spoke tentatively. 

“Gibbs, maybe you should let Tony do this interview,” you bit your lip as you said it and he slammed the car door shut, not looking at you as he made his way into the building. You hurried after him. 

“Boss, sure he made a stupid decision but he’s just a kid, he’s bound to make mistakes,” he still didn’t answer and you stood in front of his desk as he ruffled around it, looking for a paper or something. “Gibbs, he didn’t know the situation, you are far too angry at this kid, you’re just going to scare him-” 

“He should be scared!” Gibbs found what he was looking for, a mugshot of Nick, and pointed the corner of it at me. “And you don’t get to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do.” You shied away from his gaze and looked to Tony or Ziva for help. They both just held up their hands and looked away, not wanting to get involved. Gibbs pulled another picture out from a file, the picture the hospital had taken of you the night you finally pressed charges. Then he whirled away and down the hallway where the interrogation rooms are, leaving the rest of the agents to sit in the bullpen, staring after him. 

You sat down on the edge of his desk, giving a what-the-hell look to your coworkers. 

“Best not to argue with him when he gets like that,” Tony started, sauntering over to you and putting a hand on your shoulder. “He’s just miffed that someone had to guts to go after a member of his team and got away with it.” He paused for a second. “So are us all. We’ll get him, (Y/N).” His hand slid down your shoulder so he was gently holding your armat your elbow, and you pulled away from him. 

Ziva walked up on the other side of you and cupped your cheek in her hand again, examining your face. “How are you doing? Are you...” 

You pulled away from both of them and walked forward through them, pointing to a copy of your picture that was sitting out on Ziva’s desk. 

“This is exactly why I didn’t tell you guys,” you said, holding the picture up and looking at it. “You’re treating me like her. But I’m not her anymore. I’m Special Agent (Y/N) (Y/L/N) and I’m not a victim anymore, and I’m sick of him trying to make me feel like one.” You tore the picture up and threw it in the bin next to Ziva’s desk. “And I’m tired of being treated like one. Yes, this man is my ex-husband and yes, he abused me and yes, he’s now stalking and threatening me. But I’m not less of an agent than I was before, and I’m no less of an agent than any of you three.” You turned around and headed for the elevator, intending to go to Abby’s lab, when you thought you should bring her a Caf-Pow! down to her as you went. 

Once in the lab and Abby happily sipping on her drink, you sighed heavily as you laid down on the floor, using Bert the farting hippo as your pillow. Abby laid down next to you, turning her head to look at you with questioning eyes.

“It’s just, I’m sick of people treating me like I’m fragile, like I’m the same scared woman I was when Nick and I were together.” 

Abby pursed her lips and looked at you. “(Y/N), I don’t think they’re treating you like that, I think they’re just genuinely worried about you,” she started, sitting up and urging you to sit up with her. “Think about it, if Ziva had a stalker who was doing crazy things like destroying her car, no matter how badass you know Ziva is, you’d still be worried about her, right? You’d still want to check in with her, make sure she’s doing okay?” 

You made a face. “Yeah, I guess I would.” 

“Soooo….”

“Yeah, you’re right, Abby,” You got ready to stand up, about to head back to the bullpen to apologize to the others. 

“She usually is,” Gibb’s sounded from the doorway, leaning against the doorframe as he looked at the two of you on the floor. He walked in and held his hands out to both of you, helping you both off the ground and giving Abby another kiss on the cheek, which she smiled at. 

“I’m still running the DNA Gibbs, it was difficult because there was such a small sample left on the cigarette butt, but I promise I’ll get it. Aaaaand…” Abby skipped over to the computer and pulled up a security camera picture of a light blue pickup truck. “I found evidence of his truck driving around the NCIS parking lot a week ago, and again,” she hit a button, “5 days ago, proving he’s been stalking us. She pulled up a worse quality picture of the same truck. “And this picture is from a gas station about a mile down the road from your apartment, (Y/N). We definitely have him for stalking. And as soon as the cigarette DNA comes back, for threatening and destroying personal property, too.”

You smiled and kissed Abby on the cheek, earning an amused glace from Gibbs and a shocked grin from her. “Thanks, Abbs,” you said, and turned around to enter the elevator with your boss right behind you. “Get anything good from the boy?” You asked, suddenly remembering your argument from earlier and looking at the floor. 

You felt him shrug beside you. “Nothin’ other than confirmation that it was Lehois that paid him. It was all non sequential bills, nothing to trace him by. The kid was so nervous, he threw up on the table.” He said it matter-of-factly, but you sensed the apology there. 

“If you tell me I was right, I promise I won’t say I told you so,” you teased. He looked over at you with a smirk, watching your face struggle to hide your smile. He turned towards you like he was going to say something, but the elevator dinged and you faced the doors as they opened. “Hey, guys,” you greeted the team as you walked back to the bullpen. It was dark now, and the team looked tired, all three of them still looking intently at their screens. “I wanted to.. Apologize, for earlier. I know you’re just looking out for me, and I’m sorry I yelled at you for it.” 

Ziva smiled and hugged you, tucking your hair behind your ears. “Don’t worry, we understood. But it’s getting late, and we all should be getting home. I don’t think we can do anything else tonight.” 

You nodded. “I agree. Gibbs?” 

“Well, I’d stay later, but I’m your ride,” he smirked and held his keys up, tossing them to you and grabbing your bag from in front of his desk. “Or you’re mine.” 

You smiled and walked out the door, Gibbs following closely behind. After a few minutes worth of adjusting the seat, you managed to get the car in gear and begin the drive to his house. He looked at you over the reading glasses he was using to read the file in his hands. 

“What?” You suddenly felt self conscious as he kept staring at you, and you shifted gears as you turned onto the road outside of the parking lot. 

“Just didn’t know you could drive stick, is all,” he shrugged and went back to reading the file. 

“But you gave me the keys to your car?” More of a statement than a question. He just shrugged again, not looking up from the file. “I don’t get you,” you sighed. 

“Yeah, I can’t figure you out either,” he replied, and you glanced over at him before looking back at the road. “Not for lack’a tryin’, though.” He held up the file in his hand. 

“Are you reading my file?” You gasped, snatching it out of his hands as you turned the final corner onto his street. 

“Just checkin’ if you’re hiding anything else from me,” he smirked, and you couldn’t be mad at him, as hard as you were trying. You rolled your eyes and put the car in park, heading to Gibbs’ door. You threw your jacket over the armchair in the living room, pulling your hair out of your ponytail and looking to Gibbs, who was already headed downstairs to his woodworking. 

“I’m going to take a shower,” you said, taking your bag from the floor where he had set it when you walked in. “And I brought some things from home to make an actual dinner, if you think you’ll be hungry when I get out?” 

Gibbs shrugged and continued down the stairs as you made your way into his bathroom, excited at the prospect of a shower with your own soap, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, and razor. You took your time in the shower, changing into the new PJ set you brought from home, and braiding your hair tightly down the left side of your head. You left it like that to dry, then started into the kitchen to make the garlic alfredo sauce you had been craving. You also started boiling the water for the pasta, and a couple minutes later, Gibbs came back up from downstairs. He sat on the couch and turned the TV on, but watched you in the kitchen instead. It was a simple dinner, and you were almost done when he got up and began setting the table for you. Though it was just the two of you, it felt nice. Then he sat down at the dinner table and smirked as you stirred the pasta a little bit more. 

You turned around to see him looking at you, and you furrowed your brows. “What?” You asked him. 

He shrugged, sticking out his bottom lip just a little. “Kinda miss seein’ ya in my sweatshirt,” he said, and you blushed hard, turning back to the stove so he couldn’t see you. 

“I’ll remember that if I get cold,” you smiled as you said it, hoping he could hear the smile though he couldn’t see it. You mixed the sauce into the pasta, then set the pot on the center of the table. Gibbs helped himself to a helping and then you, and the two of you sat and ate in comfortable silence for a few minutes. 

“This is incredible,” he pointed down at his bowl with his fork. 

“Thank you,” you smiled at the compliment. “When I finally went to college, I was too old to live on the campus or have a meal plan, not that I would have wanted to anyway. So I learned a lot of easy and cheap but good recipes for when I was studying.” Gibbs chuckled and took another helping as you stood up and washed your plate in the sink, You started cleaning up the mess you had made around the kitchen when Gibbs stepped up behind you, reaching around you to wash his dish and helped you clean up the rest of the mess. 

“Thanks for dinner,” he said, already on his way back down to the basement. 

“Thanks for helping clean up,” you called after him, and once you’d dried your hands and made sure everything else was clean, you threw Gibbs’ red sweatshirt back on, following him downstairs. 

He was already pouring two coffee mugs with his bottle of bourbon, and you graciously accepted the one he held out to you as you sat down on the stool behind him, ready to watch him work. He eyed your body with the sweatshirt back on it, a smirk threatening to grace his lips. 

You shrugged. “I got cold,” you said with a smile as you sipped the bourbon, the liquid burning your throat as it went down. 

He smiled and shook his head again, picking up his sandpaper and starting to go up and down on the hull of the side of the boat that was on the opposite side as you, so he could still face you as he worked. 

“What’s this one’s name going to be?” You asked, taking another sip of the alcohol before setting it down and picking up another sandpaper, watching the way he moved it over the wood. 

He shrugged. “Not sure yet,” he answered, as you began to try and mimic his movements with the sandpaper on the opposite side of the boat. He chuckled and set his sandpaper down, finished his drink, and came over to your side. 

He looked at you as he put his right hand over yours, stepping behind you to brace the both of you. He used his left hand to readjust your braid before he rested it on the hull of the ship behind where your right hand was working, so you mimicked him, putting your left hand just next to his. He began moving your right hand, moving your body along with it in long, smooth vertical strokes. Your heart beat loudly in your chest, and you’d be surprised if Gibb’s couldn’t hear it, but if he did, he didn’t react. 

He let go of your body and you kept going with the sandpaper, and he stepped back to watch you. He smiled as he poured himself another glass of bourbon, standing too close for comfort but not close enough. 

“Maybe I’ll name her after the girl who’s helpin’ me build ‘er”, Gibbs’ voice was low and gruff, and you looked up at him. The two of you stood there for a while, not moving, just looking at each other, before you took a deep breath and set the sandpaper down, walking away. You were not drunk enough for this yet, and whatever happened to his rules… what did he expect from you? 

“I’m gonna head to bed,” you started, and turned back to look at him to see him smiling to the ground. “But you still don’t have to sleep on the couch, you know. Theres still plently of room on the bed, and I’ll try not to have fits like I did last night.” 

You walked back up the stairs and slipped into the bed, willing your heart to slow down so you could sleep. Just as your exhaustion began to get the better of you, you felt Gibbs slip into the other side of the bed. His warmth and weight made you once again fall immediately asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If y'all could keep commenting telling me what you like and/or constructive criticism that would help a lot! Knowing what you guys like and don't like helps me improve. 
> 
> It is finals week next week so I probably won't post again until after then, but who knows, maybe I'll get struck with divine influence. (You hear that, Calliope? I'm talking to you. Hint, hint)


	4. Mistakes

You woke up before the alarm, feeling Gibbs close to you, but not touching you as he had been the night before. As you became fully conscious you turned around to look at him, curious to see whether he was sleeping facing you or facing away from you. As you turned you were met with his blue eyes, still half-lidded with sleepiness but brightening when they met your own. 

"Mornin'" he rumbled, and you smiled softly at him as he took you in. He lifted his left hand to your face, frowning briefly when you flinched before tucking away a stray hair that had fallen from your braid. His hand travelled lower, until you felt the tips of his fingers lightly play atop your collarbone. "I've never seen this before," he stated, and you realized he was touching your tattoo, so you craned your neck out of the way slightly so he could get a better look. "Libra scales?" 

You nodded. "I was born in early October, so I am a Libra, but they also represent the scales of Dike, the Greek goddess of Justice." You held his gaze when he looked back up at you, and you licked your lips to wet them. "I got it in college, a matching tattoo with Rachel. Though she got hers in a much more… provocative area." 

Gibbs smirked and then turned his attention back to the tattoo, tracing the details with the very tip of his middle finger, making your skin tingle wherever he touched it. The artist had done an incredible job with it, and you had gone back a month later for another. 

"I have another," you offered the information, and while he didn't say anything, the curiosity was clear in his eyes. You turned away from him, pulling your braid to one side of your head as your back was now to him. "if you pull down the neck of my tank top enough, you should be able to see the winged goddess herself." 

You felt the cloth moving against your back, and then his fingers were back on your skin, causing a shudder to run through you. Dike floated between your shoulder blades, but you felt his fingers wander a wider path than you knew Dike took up on your skin. 

You were content to just lay like that, with Gibbs' tracing lines on your skin for the rest of the day, but the alarm suddenly broke through your reverie, forcing you to lunge forward to silence it. By the time you turned back around, Gibbs was leveraging himself off the bed, grabbing a towel and a change of clothes. 

"I'm gonna shower," he said, walking out the door but sticking his head back I a few seconds later. "I have cereal and oatmeal, help yourself to either." 

You got dressed and headed out into the kitchen, quickly making and eating a bowl of oatmeal and pulling your hair out of it’s braid, brushing through the soft curls with your fingers. Once Gibbs was out of the shower, you brushed your teeth and washed your face, walking out to find Gibbs waiting for you by the door. 

The day passed uneventfully, the team’s efforts to track Lehois proving unfruitful. With the evidence Abby had gathered, plus Ducky’s psychological profile, you had more than enough to publish a warrant for his arrest, and NCIS had BOLO’s out across the surrounding states. You had enough for another restraining order as well, but you felt as if Nick had already proven he wasn’t going to abide by the law, and a restraining order would no longer keep him from you. You needed to find him. 

You knew the silent tension between you and Gibbs couldn't last forever, not after the night before and that morning. But today had almost seemed normal, sitting at your desk next to your team, taking orders from your boss. It felt like chasing after any other suspect, it felt like just another day in the office. 

But Gibbs wouldn’t meet your eyes.He only spoke to you once all day - “DiNozzo, (Y/L/N), run background checks on his family,” he had said, looking down at his desk but pointing at you. “Ziva, McGee, track down his cell mates, anyone he was close to in prison,” he looked at them both in turn, but avoided your gaze, the interrogation that you held in your eyes. 

The silence of the car on the ride home rung in your ears, and the steps to his basement echoed as his feet him them in perfect metric time. 

You had grown sick of it, the faint sound of sandpaper and metal sawing against wood, nothing to take your mind away from the events of your week, no sound to occupy the space in your mind. You had tried texting Rachel, and had had a brief phone conversation with Abby, but both of the girls were busy. 

You looked out of the window at the sun getting ready to set. You remembered there was a small park not far down the road from Gibb’s house, one that people often took their dogs for walks through. You changed into comfortable leggings and pulled on one of Gibb’s jackets, slipping out the door and beginning the short walk down the quiet road to the park. 

You shoved your hands into the pockets of the jacket as you let the different type of silence sink into you, comforting you. No one was around, but the world still buzzed; with grasshoppers and cicadas chirping, and dogs barking in the distance. It cleared your mind, the peacefulness settling over you like a blanket as you watched the sky turn just the beginnings of a shade of pink. 

You made it to the park just in time, as a playgroup of a bunch of different dogs was getting ready to leave. You spent ten minutes or so making rounds, giving each pup a head pat, sometimes a butt scratch if they seemed excited enough to meet you. The owners didn’t mind staying an extra few minutes and eventually you sat down on the ground, letting the group of dogs all come over to you and overwhelm you with their kisses and their love. When they had had enough and the owners wanted to leave, you got back up off the ground and sat instead on a bench that faced the west, which had a perfect view of the sky as you watched it turn from pink to orange to red, and finally a deep blue as the sun sank down beneath the horizon. 

A few joggers passed through the park as you made your way to leave, and you gave one of their dogs a friendly pet as it strained on it’s leash to greet you as they jogged by. 

The sounds of nature were different now, on the walk back, but no less comforting. The sound of crickets chirping, frogs ribbiting, and the faint buzz of the streetlights felt familiar to you as you headed up the steps to Gibbs house and opened the door. 

You were surprised to find Gibb’s pacing the living room, phone pressed tightly to his ear as he worked his lower lip.

His eyes met yours and they darkened in anger. “Nevermind, she just walked in,” Gibbs said, curt as he snapped the phone shut. “What the hell are you thinking,” he started, his voice eerily calm despite the storm behind his eyes. “Just wandering away like that? Leaving your phone here? After everything that’s happened?” 

You opened your mouth to respond but the look in his eyes as he stepped closer to you stopped you, his anger beginning to boil over. 

“Need I remind you that your psycho ex-husband is on the loose somewhere after having stalked and threatened you for days? What the hell could possibly make you think that it would be a good idea to leave without asking me?” His voice had gotten louder, but instead of withering under his temper as usual, your own flared up in response.

“Asking you?” Your voice was sharp as a knife as you spoke the words through clenched teeth. “Who do you think you are? You may have taken me in while I was being threatened and harassed, and I owe you for that, but you do not get to dictate every second of my life, you do not get to make these decisions for me. I don’t have to ask you for anything.” 

“Dictate your life?” He was almost yelling now. “I was goddamn worried! I come up from the basement and you were nowhere to be found, you left your phone here! With Lehois on the loose, what was I supposed to think?” He was yelling now, and you hated being upstaged. 

“Worried? I couldn’t stand the silence of this goddamn house with you pretending like I no longer exist, like you didn’t take me home from work today. Hell you didn’t speak to me at work either, you act like you’ve left me in your bed this morning and that’s where I’ve stayed.” You yelled back at him, and you didn’t know how it happened but you had met the angry strides he had made in your direction with defiant stomps of your own, and now you were standing inches away from him, but not close enough where you had to look up to see his eyes. “You haven’t acknowledged my presence since this morning. You haven’t looked at me all day, what made you want to find me now?” You met his eyes in defiance. Yours burned with the beginnings of tears and you cursed yourself for being an angry crier, but his blue eyes burned almost black with anger - 

Wait. That wasn’t anger. They definitely burned with something, but not in the way you remember Nick’s eyes flaring when he looked at you. 

You stared at him, and he stared at you. You opened your mouth to say something again, some snarky remark, you were sure, but you suddenly couldn’t remember what you were about to say as Gibbs closed the gap between you and his lips were pressed against yours, his hand cradling the back of your head and tangling in the baby hairs at the base of your scalp. 

The kiss was hungry and desperate, not in the way of someone who craves control, who wants to take from you. It was the desperation of someone who had thought they’d lost something, who wanted to make sure they hadn’t. You understood then. 

You kissed back with the same fervor, slipping your hands around his jaw to cling to the back of his neck, there not being enough hair for you to slide your fingers through and grip. He asked for entry with his tongue and you granted it to him, as he walked you forward until you felt your back hit the solid wall behind you. 

You broke the kiss first, needing to take a breath, and when you opened your eyes you watched his flick open, his long eyelashes twitching as he searched your face. His eyes were filled with some emotion - not love, you weren’t naive enough to think either of you were in love - but you couldn’t figure out what it was. You also saw a hint of regret so you kissed him again, intending to make it go away. 

His hands were back on you, wandering your body; first he held your jaw, but his grip loosened and they were sliding around your waist, reaching behind you and squeezing your butt just enough to have a handful of it, just enough to make you moan slightly into his mouth. His hands wandered up your back and then back around before finally his left hand rested on your hip and his right one had returned to holding the back of your head. You could feel his arousal with your bodies so close together, but he didn’t move his hips into yours, didn’t make a move to push it further. 

“Jethro,” you let out a breathy sound when you broke apart again, and you felt his hand tighten around your hip, pulling your body closer to his, rocking against you a little bit. His name - his first name - felt strange in your mouth, but you can’t say you disliked it, and clearly he didn’t either. His forehead rested against yours as you both tried to regain some oxygen.

“(Y/N),” he groaned, and your body shivered at the way it sounded, his voice deep and gruff. “This is-” You bit your lip as he started to speak and his eyes followed the movement, your tongue flicking out afterwards to soothe the area. He never finished his sentence and tentatively you put your hand near the bottom hem of the sweatshirt he was wearing, beginning to slip under it to feel skin. 

He groaned again, as if in frustration, and allowed his hand the same movement, snaking up slowly under the T-shirt you wore under his jacket. The first brush of his thumb against the sensitive skin of your stomach made you jump, and he slid his hand higher, dancing around your ribcage and around to your back. He deftly unclasped your bra, smirking slightly as he removed his own jacket from your shoulders, and then slid the straps down your arms, his touch leaving goosebumps in its wake, before discarding the garment on the floor of his living room. 

And then it was your turn to explore his skin, and you let your hand wander the warmth under his sweatshirt, first up his stomach and chest where you could feel the muscles, strong and rigid underneath his skin, and then around to his back, trailing your nails lightly down the center of his spine and causing him to shiver. 

The wall began to grow uncomfortable against your back. “Should we move this… into the bedroom?” you asked in what you had hoped was a seductive tone. He lifted the side of his mouth in a defeated smile and nodded, giving you another kiss before the two of you turned and headed down the hallway. 

It was when you closed the door behind you and turned to resume the kiss that had just been broken that you knew something was wrong. His expression had changed, and he pushed you away when you tried to reach him. 

“Jethro,” you started, and you saw the argument that created within himself. But he steeled himself and looked up at you apologetically. 

“I have rules, for a reason, (Y/N),” your heart sank, embarrassment already burning at the tips of your ears. “And you know this isn’t because I don’t want this because god, I want this. But this is all kinds of unacceptable. Not only does this go against NCIS policy, it goes against my policy, and you… You are not in the kind of place to be making these decisions right now, a lot has happened to you,” he seemed like he was going to go on, more reasons to justify shutting this down right now.

“Rules are meant to be broken,” you started, and as he looked up at you you sat down next to him, resting your hand on his thigh, drawing little circles with your index finger. “And this is a decision I would have made two weeks ago,” you weren’t sure offering that information was a good plan, or a very bad one, but it slipped out before you had time to stop it. 

He reluctantly pulled away from you, slipping into the right side of the bed and sticking to the edge of it. “It’s late,” he grumbled. “We should both get to sleep.”

You took a deep breath and sat on the edge of the bed for a while before finally giving in, slipping under the covers and sticking to the left edge. The two of you faked sleep like this, with your backs facing each other but your eyes open, staring into the darkness of the room trying to figure out the next move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a final tomorrow but whoops. Enjoy this and sorry to leave it like this again but deep down in my soul I am a cruel person!


	5. Escapades

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smutty NSFW chapter warning!!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a really short chapter, and I'm so sorry for it, but I've been so busy I haven't had the chance to write this at all. I had honestly almost forgotten about it and on a whim decided to check if there were any more comments on this fic, and there were so many (ok 5, but that's so many to me) comments asking me to please continue with it, so I've written up a little bit to keep y'all entertained until I can write a little more! I'm currently doing a semester abroad in a foreign country so, I've definitely got a lot on my plate, but i promise I'll keep going. again, sorry for the cliffhanger, but I wanted to be able to put something out, lol

You woke up before the alarm again to find yourself once more wrapped in a sleeping Gibb’s arms. You took a quick peek at the clock on the bedside table, a thrill of panic and confusion running through you when you saw the time: 9:00 AM. You squirmed in an effort to get up before realizing it was Saturday; there was no work today unless something came up in the investigation. You settled back down into Gibb’s embrace and felt him hard against your ass as you wiggled back into place. 

Well now this was a tricky situation. After how last night ended, you figured you shouldn’t push this agenda any further. But at the same time, you knew he wanted you now, and damn if that didn’t send a surge of heat through your body. And you were left wholly unsatisfied last night, and Gibbs probably felt the same way. You failed at talking yourself out of this bad, horrible, no-good idea and wiggled your ass just slightly against him, not wanting to wake him yet. 

His arms twitched around your body, pulling you slightly closer to him in response. You tried to steady your breathing and did it again, harder this time, earning a sleepy groan from him, the change in his breathing telling you he was waking up. 

You pushed back against him and swivelled your ass once again, hearing the man behind you inhale sharply and completely tighten his grip around you, holding you to him. He brought his mouth to your ear and his hot breath made your whole body shiver. 

“You are not being very fair,” Gibbs whispered, and trailed his mouth lower to your neck, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake. “How am I supposed to resist you if you keep this up?” He was now trailing open-mouthed kisses down your neck to your shoulder, melting you into a pool of arousal without a coherent thought. “You don’t even give me a day to recover.” All you could do was moan in response as he sucked at a particularly sensitive spot on your neck. “God, that sound,” he pushed his hips up against your backside and moaned at the friction it gave him as his hand wandered up under the tank you had hastily put on after the events of last night. “Make it again,” he asked as his hand cupped your left breast, rolling your nipple between his thumb and forefinger while he kissed that spot on your neck again. You groaned louder, and he rolled you over so you were under him as he propped himself up on his elbows. “How am I supposed to resist that?” 

“You’re not,” you answered as you looked up at him, biting your lip and then soothing it with your tongue. He watched the movement with his eyes and groaned before leaning down to kiss you, gentle and slow at first but gaining speed as it heated up. You ran your hands up his arms until you were gripping at his neck again, willing him not to stop as you pulled away from the kiss to breath. You sat up, surprising him briefly but being met with approving eyes as you slipped your tank over your head, and he followed suit with his own shirt. He dipped to kiss your neck again and you craned your neck to the side to allow him better access, and he began trailing kisses down your chest. 

You gripped what you could of his short hair as he ran his tongue over your left nipple, making you gasp once the cold air hit your breast. He smirked and then closed his mouth around it, earning a low moan from you as he gently sucked on the hardened bud. 

“J-Jethro,” you stuttered out, arching your back as he trailed his hand down your stomach to the hem of your shorts. You tightened your grip in his hair with one hand, the other gliding down his back and digging in with your nails a bit. He dipped his hand under your shorts and made a surprised and pleased sound when he discovered your lack of panties. He pulled his head up from your breast and looked at you.

“Have you been sleeping next to me for three nights, not wearing anything under these shorts?” You nodded sheeply and bit your lip, which he smiled at. “You’re going to be the death of me.” At this he dipped a long finger down into your sex. “So fucking wet, already,” he whispered as he added another finger, beginning to pump them back and forth.

“All for you,” you moaned out, arching your back further as he hit that spot within you. It didn’t take long for him to play your wound-up body like a violin and soon you were singing as your orgasm washed over you, watching with hooded eyes the satisfied look on Gibb’s face. He removed his fingers from you and placed them in his mouth, and you groaned. “Now you’re going to be the death of me,” you said, and he chuckled.

Luckily Gibb’s had condoms stored in the nightstand next to his bed, and 30 minutes later the two of you collapsed, breathless, on his bed as you let the morning’s events wash over you. 

You laid there for a while before the slick between your legs became uncomfortable, and you leveraged yourself off the bed and pointed with your thumb out his bedroom door. 

“I’m going to shower,” Gibbs just nodded in assent before you heard his phone ring, which he answered with a groan. 

You slipped out of the door and into a nice warm shower, content to let the boiling water flow over you for a while and soothe the muscles in your shoulders. Despite the inner feeling that this was all a horrible idea, and that you should be panicking about what the two of you were going to do next… you couldn’t bring yourself to be arsed. You smiled and sighed contentedly as you massaged the conditioner out of your hair, until you heard a knock at the bathroom door. 

“New info on Lehois.” Gibb’s voice sounded grim, immediately sending your heart plummeting to the floor. You quickly turned the shower off and dried yourself to the best of your ability, opening the bathroom door, wrapped in just a towel to face Gibb’s worried expression. “Sorry to interrupt your peace. Put on whatever clothes you can get on the quickest and meet me in the car.” He was already dressed and, as you hurried through the kitchen after getting dressed, you saw he had left a bowl of oatmeal on the counter for you, next to your badge and gun. 

You grabbed it as you walked by and slipped into the front seat of his car, spooning the food into your mouth quickly as he drove. 

“What happened?” He didn’t answer, only shifted the car into higher gear as he sped up. “Gibbs, don’t do this to me again. What did he do?” There was still no response from him, and you felt panic course through your body as your mind began running through all of the possible scenarios.

“Gibbs!”


	6. Closings

Arriving at the police blockade you stepped out of the car with Gibbs and stared open-mouthed at the scene in front of you. Nick stood on the pavement, his back against the building, with a gun pointed at Rachel who was in his arms. Mcgee, Tony and Ziva on every side of him with their weapons drawn. A crowd had gathered around them, watching with interest as Tony tried to talk Nick down.

Rachel saw you before Nick did, and her eyes let out a flash of relief before returning to the terrified state she was in. She looked like she was going to call out to you, but you shook your head and put your finger to your lips, hoping she understood. 

You’d been trained in hostage negotiation but, this was so far from any situation you’d prepared for. That was your best friend in there. You looked around again and realized Ziva was leaving the scene, and you realized she was going to set up the sniper. You needed to keep him distracted until then. You could hear the growing desperation in his voice, angrily demanding you. 

Gibbs shook his head when you looked to him for approval, but you couldn’t stand and watch your best friend be threatened. Tony was still trying to reason with him, but he was being shouted over, demanding you come out within the next minute or he’d shoot Rachel. You moved into his view.

Immediately he zeroed in on you, narrowing his eyes in your direction. You saw him move his gun just slightly, like he wanted to aim at you, but kept it trained on Rachel, using her as a shield. 

“You!” he shouted, his voice ragged from yelling. “You ruined my damn life. My whole goddamn life. Nowhere will hire me. No one will date me. Those years in jail were the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. You ruined my life so I’m going to ruin yours.”

“Just kill me, Nick,” you shouted back, holding your hands out to show you weren’t armed. “Look, I’m weaponless, defenseless. That’s how you like your women, right? So you can bully them, control them? I won’t let you bully me anymore. You’re just gonna have to kill me.” 

Nick smiled ruefully, sending a surge of fear through you. “Oh, I’m not going to kill you,” he yelled back to you. You heard someone tell Gibbs the sniper was in place. “I was at first, but I decided it’d be worse for you to kill everyone you care about, starting with this little whore,” he shouted spitefully, and looked at Rachel in his arms. 

You didn’t think. “No!” you shouted, lunging at him. You distracted him well enough. He turned his attention and the gun to you, losing his grip on Rachel. In the same moment, a shot rang out from the roof beside you, and you hit the ground next to your friend, Nick’s body crumpling on the pavement beside you. You crawled to Rachel, heaving her into your lap as she sobbed, quickly checking her for wounds. You found nothing more than superficial scrapes from the pavement, and you were sure she would have bruises forming soon from Nick’s hands. Tony and McGee ran up to the two of you, followed closely by Gibbs. 

“Are you guys alright?” Tony asked, holding his hand out for you and your friend to take. You took it and then turned to help Rachel up, wiping the tears from her face and hugging her tightly. She laughed then, hugging you back, gripping onto you like you were her only lifeline. When you parted, you wiped tears that you didn’t realize you had from your cheeks, hissing when the action stung. Blood spattered your hand, and you looked towards the other agents questioningly. 

“I think it’s road rash, from when you hit the ground,” McGee said, gently turning your face in his hands and inspecting your cheek. “We’ll get Ducky to patch you up, and it’ll hurt for a while, but nothing too serious.”

You nodded in thanks to McGee and walked to Gibbs, who pulled you into another tight hug. You had almost forgotten about everyone else around when you suddenly heard a familiar voice. 

Amy Reid, a newscaster in D.C. ran up to the edge of the police barricade, shoving a microphone and a camera forward and asking questions about what just transpired. She asked them so quickly your brain had a hard time keeping up, and you held a hand up to her to get her to stop. 

“Are you serious?” you asked, and she looked taken aback. “This literally happened 30 seconds ago. We obviously need a minute to collect ourselves. Have some decency, please.” She obviously wasn’t happy with this, but she backed off, retreating behind the crowd of people in the barricade line.

“They’re not going to spin that in a great light,” Tony said with his lips pursed, and you turned to him.

“My best friend was just being threatened with death by my ex-husband who put me in the hospital four times and who stalked and harassed me upon getting out. I don’t really care if they want to slander me a bit for being ‘rude’ to her. I think I deserve a minute.” 

He held his hands up. “Hey, I totally agree with you here. They’re just not going to like it.” You shrugged and watched as Ducky and Palmer approached the group with a stretcher for Nick and a medical kit for you and Rachel. They heaved him onto the stretcher and then Ducky motioned for the two of you to follow him back to the van. You sat on the edge of it while he tended to your wounds, leaving you with bandages covering the left side of your face. 

You turned to Rachel, gesturing at yourself. “Now I think this is a look, don’t you?” She giggled a bit, and you struck a dumb pose to make her laugh harder. You knew this had to be unbelievably tough for her, and you wanted to take her mind off of it with laughter for now. 

“Hey, this will be great new material for the show,” she laughed and looked down at her hands. “You never realize how crazy this stuff is when you’re writing it, though.” 

You bumped her shoulder with yours, looking up as Gibbs approached the two of you. 

“How are you holding up?” He asked, tilting his head slightly as you squinted against the sun. You noticed Tony behind him, talking to the press, and your heart sunk as you realized you would be the centerpiece of this story. You could see the headlines now: “ex of NCIS Agent takes hostage in West End!” 

You looked up at him. “Physically? Fine. Emotionally?” you shrugged. “My face, name and story are going to be splattered across every newspaper in town. I’m not ready for it.” 

He nodded. “We’ll lay low for a while, then.” You pursed your lips, unsure of what to make of his use of “we”. He turned to Rachel and asked her the same question. She shrugged and gave a generic answer about how she’ll be fine in time, and you made a mental note to get her to see the agency shrink. She was a good woman, and would do wonders in helping her get over the trauma. 

Gibbs held his hand out to you. “Let’s head to the office,” he started, and you took his hand and leveraged yourself off of the back of the medic wagon. “The rest of the team will meet us there. We have a lot of paperwork to get through, and then we can officially close this case.” You nodded. Officially closing the case, and furthermore finally closing that chapter of your life will feel really good. No more looking over your shoulder. He’s gone.

You smile as you climb back into the passenger seat of Gibb’s car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, folks. I know this wasn't exactly up to par with the previous chapters of this story. When I started writing this I was extremely invested in it, and spent a lot of time carefully adding details and interactions that felt genuine to the characters. Over time I've lost full interest in the story (that's not to say I don't enjoy writing it! It just takes me a lot longer and more effort.) and so it's felt more of a struggle to find a good way to close it out, and I honestly haven't watched the show in a good bit of time, so I feel maybe the way I've written them are a bit out of character. There will be another chapter, this isn't quite the end yet. I hope you guys can still enjoy this and I look forward to reading your comments :)


End file.
